Methods and systems for providing selective multi-way replication and atomization of cell blocks and other elements in spreadsheets and presentations

Abstract

The disclosed technology includes multi-way triggering of automatic replication elements selectively within and across documents, cellular atomization of spreadsheet cells and charts while retaining their desired formula, function and content properties, combining the selective multi-way replication with the cellular atomization, and employing a library capability to easily reuse automatically coordinating elements and atomized spreadsheet or tabular cells and charts.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A method of copying a grid layout of multiple cells in a spreadsheet to cells onto a page or slide, collectively page, in a document or deck, collectively document, then separating and rearranging individual copied cells, including:
 copying the grid layout of positions and content of multiple spreadsheet cells from the spreadsheet to an initial layout of cells on the page in the document, wherein at least some of the cells hold formulas,
 including linking individual cells in the initial layout to the spreadsheet cells in the grid layout and separating cells in the initial layout to allow rearrangement and reformatting of the individual cells into different positions and sizes on the page than in the grid layout, without changing the grid layout of the linked cells in the spreadsheet; and 
 
 responsive to user commands to rearrange and reformat selected individual cells that are a proper subset of the initial layout of cells on the page, rearranging and reformatting the selected individual cells to positions and sizes on the page moved away and separated from non-selected cells remaining in the initial layout in a grid, while maintaining the linking of content of the rearranged individual cells to non-rearranged cells in the spreadsheet. 
 
     
     
       2. The method of  claim 1 , wherein in at least one user command the selected individual cells are multiple cells selected by lassoing a rectangular grid of multiple cells. 
     
     
       3. The method of  claim 1 , wherein in at least one user command the selected individual cells are multiple cells selected by control selecting multiple individual cells in a non-rectangular layout. 
     
     
       4. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the linked cells are identified by their cell references. 
     
     
       5. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the linked cells can be copied empty into the document and then populated either in the document or the spreadsheet. 
     
     
       6. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the linked cells contain content of data or formulas before the copying. 
     
     
       7. The method of  claim 1 , wherein some of the linked cells in the spreadsheet contain formulas that are algebraic, spreadsheet functional, including SUM, COUNT or STDEV, or combinations of both. 
     
     
       8. The method of  claim 1 , wherein a linked cell can be copied to more than one position within the document. 
     
     
       9. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the linked cells can be integrated with doc capabilities such as text, shapes, graphics and pictures. 
     
     
       10. The method of  claim 9 , wherein the linked cells are embedded in a slide or page of a presentation application. 
     
     
       11. The method of  claim 9 , wherein the linked cells are embedded in a page of a word processing application. 
     
     
       12. The method of  claim 9 , wherein the linked cells are embedded in a page or form of a form application. 
     
     
       13. The method of  claim 9 , wherein the linked cells are embedded in a page or view of a data visualizer or data analytics application. 
     
     
       14. The method of  claim 1 , wherein content of the linked cells is viewable in both the spreadsheet that was a source and the document into which it was copied. 
     
     
       15. The method of  claim 1 , wherein content of the linked cells can be edited in both the document and the spreadsheet. 
     
     
       16. A non-transitory computer readable medium loaded with instructions, that when executed on a processor, cause the processor to implement actions of copying a grid layout of multiple cells in a spreadsheet to cells onto a page or slide, collectively page, in a document or deck, collectively document, then separating and rearranging individual copied cells, the actions including:
 copying the grid layout of positions and content of multiple spreadsheet cells from the spreadsheet to an initial layout of cells on the page in the document, wherein at least some of the cells hold formulas,
 including linking individual cells in the initial layout to the spreadsheet cells in the grid layout and separating cells in the initial layout to allow rearrangement and reformatting of the individual cells into different positions and sizes on the page than in the grid layout, without changing the grid layout of the linked cells in the spreadsheet; and 
 
 responsive to user commands to rearrange and reformat selected individual cells that are a proper subset of the initial layout of cells on the page, rearranging and reformatting the selected individual cells to positions and sizes on the page moved away and separated from non-selected cells remaining in the initial layout in a grid, while maintaining the linking of content of the rearranged individual cells to non-rearranged cells in the spreadsheet. 
 
     
     
       17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 16 , wherein in at least one user command the selected individual cells are multiple cells selected by lassoing a rectangular grid of multiple cells. 
     
     
       18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 16 , wherein in at least one user command the selected individual cells are multiple cells selected by control selecting multiple individual cells in a non-rectangular layout. 
     
     
       19. The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 16 , wherein a linked cell can be copied to more than one position within the document. 
     
     
       20. The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 16 , wherein content of the linked cells is viewable in both the spreadsheet that was a source and the document into which it was copied. 
     
     
       21. The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 16 , wherein content of the linked cells can be edited in both the document and the spreadsheet. 
     
     
       22. The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 16 , wherein the linked cells are embedded in a slide or page of a presentation application. 
     
     
       23. The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 16 , wherein the linked cells are embedded in a page of a word processing application.